Roommates

When living off campus you do not have resident assistants to mediate conflicts, and you cannot just move to a new apartment if you are not getting along with your roommate(s). If you will be living with others, even if you have lived with them before in the residence hall or you are close friends, you should consider the following questions prior to living together to avoid conflict:

• What are you looking for in a roommate?
• Do you or does your potential roommate smoke?
• Do you and your potential roommate have similar sleeping habits? How late do you like to sleep on the weekends? Weekdays?
• How late do you stay up on the weekends? Weekdays?
• Do you and your potential roommate have similar study habits?
• Can you and your potential roommate handle each other’s lifestyle differences (i.e., use of alcohol, sexual orientation, etc.)?
• Does either of you have pets or plan to have pet?
• How important is cleanliness to both of you?
• Consider the amount of personal belongings you both may have. The more there is, the more opportunity there is for clutter.
• How much time do you both spend in the bathroom/ shower?

For a sample roommate agreement see the Off-Campus Roommate Guide

If you are looking for a roommate, Orange Housing maintains a listing of students who have apartments and are looking for roommates to fill a vacancy. If you are looking for someone to rent an apartment with, you may want to ask staff at your school/college, as they may know of students who are looking for a roommate and will be able to connect you